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I'm not sure which book you're referring to, but I'd be interested in taking a look at it sometime.

I'll add a photo of the 'bad' clothespin clamps I bought some several years ago, which are meant to be seen in contrast with Bruce's good clothespins.

They were relatively inexpensive from a commercial vendor, just added into a parts order, and I did use them a few times, but didn't like them. Compared to Bruce's, you can see that the legs are thicker. Because of that, they are overly rigid. I think I could probably take some of the width off to make them more useful.

But I think the legs are a little too short, so a more reasonable fix might be to drill a hole further back, and then make new triangular cuts.

I also have applied a thin layer of cork to one leg on each clamp to protect the outside surface.

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You Can Make a Stradivarius violin by Joseph V. Reid. Fun little plans...nice as a collectors item. You can find it on e-bay for around 20-25 dollars if you keep your eye out. Comes with 8 plans as this one has on e-bay:

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Maybe Ariane will put the article in the Strad downloads section since it's been a while now.

The crosswise piece of wood on the one end (soundpost stock with a hole drilled, and glued on) is needed to keep them from tipping on their side. The advantage of using wood is that it can be slightly moistened to keep it from slipping, if desired.

I was mostly trying to reduce weight compared to conventional clamps, and have something which was extremely fast to apply. The complete set of clamps weighs about the same as one conventional aluminum clamp. Spring wire diameter ("music wire", available at some hardware stores and hobby shops) is 2.4 mm. Clamping force is 600g when clamping an object 15mm high, but they can be bent to vary the force.

Useful for cleats 'n stuff too.

Here are a few pictures:

I just made some of these, they are really great! So light and fast to use, thanks for sharing